Sunset
by ojuzu
Summary: Life is weird. Hyuuga Hinata knows this. Haruno Sasuke probably knows it. Aburame Shino definitely does, but nobody can tell if he cares. Itachi is his sister's favourite person in the world. Neji is annoyed at life. Divergence, eventual SasuHinaShino.


A/N: Yes, yes, I _should_ be working on (or at least editing and posting more of) Life, but this has been sitting around on my hard drive for a while and it's time I posted it. Sadly, this is most of what I have written and I've hit a little stumbling block. However, there will be more — at the moment, this, Life, and a brand spanking new time-travel fic are my main stories. So no worries.

Yes, this is (probably) going to be SasuHinaShino. Someday. And there may or may not be very slight Naruto/Gaara in the future. Live with it — or don't, your life is your own, and I can't blame you if you'd rather go re-read Terry Pratchett. Or whatever you people do who don't read as much as I do.

* * *

"Team Seven: Inuzuka Kiba...

"Uzumaki Naruto...

"And Uchiha Sakura."

Kiba cheered at this, while Sakura simply smiled at them both, and Naruto nodded. Hinata sighed. She'd been hoping to be on Naruto-kun's team... Oh well. Nothing to be done about that — at least, not anything that didn't require time travel and a huuuuge favour from the Sandaime.

"Team Eight: Hyuuga Hinata..."

She perked up at that. Who were her teammates going to be? Would she like them? Would she spend her life as a genin trying to get away from them? Would she commit suicide by Neji just to avoid being in the same room with them?

Okay, probably not that last one. But this would be a big turning point in her life.

Hinata was so busy wondering, she nearly missed it.

"...rame Shino, and Haruno Sasuke."

Hinata shrugged. Aburame Shino was Naruto-kun's best friend, and they had similar dispositions. Both were near-invisible, and didn't like being noticed more than they had to. He was nice enough.

Haruno Sasuke was the only Haruno known to be born without pink hair, as well as being the only boy for many generations in that clan. (Perhaps it was because of this that his hair was black. Having pink hair would be very annoying for a guy.

On second thought, maybe his hair _was_ pink...and he dyed it black.)

He was also Uchiha Sakura's cousin. The two were not known to be kindly disposed towards each other.

Really, Hinata could have done a lot worse.

--

A few minutes later, a very pretty woman with red eyes entered and introduced herself as Yuuhi Kurenai, their new jounin-sensei. Hinata recognized her as a master of genjutsu, and inwardly whistled to herself. They'd gotten a really good sensei — she was known throughout the Shinobi lands as the best genjutsu user of Konoha in decades.

Kurenai-sensei took them off to another, empty, classroom. She had them all sit in a circle, and winked when she announced they'd have to do the standard introductions. "List your name, some of your likes, dislikes, and your dream for the future. I'll go first.

"I am, as you may know, Yuuhi Kurenai. I like figuring out problems, using genjutsu, and hanging out with my friends. I don't like willfully ignorant people, the idea that you have to be emotionless to be a good ninja, or fried food. My dream... that's for me to know, and for you to figure out after it's come true. Now you, Shino-kun."

The bug user started a little at being addressed, but didn't change his expression. "Aburame Shino. I like being in the background and reading. I dislike people who hate bugs. My dream... I have a few, but nothing too big."

Kurenai nodded. "Sasuke-kun?"

"Haruno Sasuke. I like training and experimenting with tensile-strength weapons. I don't like people who ignore me or Sakura, and my dream is to surpass both the Uchiha clan and my own family."

_Wow. That's one big dream._

"Hinata-chan?"

Hinata jumped, much more than Shino had. She'd been concentrating on what the others had said, and the fact that she would be next hadn't entered her head.

"H-hai.Hyuuga Hinata. I like... thinking out things, and Naruto-kun. I don't like being stared at, or people looking down on me. My dream is to reform the Hyuuga clan so the people there that I care about can be happy."

Kurenai nodded. "We'll be having a bit of a test tomorrow, I'm afraid. Training Ground Ten, at eight-thirty. Don't be late, but do get plenty of sleep."

With that, she rose from the floor and waved before leaving, and Team Eight left to their own private haunts and thoughts.

--

A few hours later, Hyuuga Hinata was sought out by one Aburame Shino. When she asked him why, he replied, "We are a team, after all. If Kurenai-sensei is going to test us tomorrow, I would rather be able to work with my teammates than to be utterly unaware of their strengths and weaknesses."

Hinata nodded. It was a good idea, and it would be best to start getting to know her teammates. Even if she was hugely shy and completely asocial — Shino managed, didn't he? He came in second in asocialness only to Naruto-kun, yet _he_ had been the one to seek an early bond with his teammates. Not Sasuke. Not her.

"I t-think I know where Sasuke-kun lives. Sakura-chan told me once, so I s-should be able to find the Haruno house...i-if they haven't moved, that is."

Shino probably had had to strain his ears to get what she said, but he nodded and politely ignored the light blush and downcast eyes Hinata had from speaking more than one sentence to someone she wasn't already close with.

Inwardly, Hinata sighed at herself. She didn't like being so shy, especially if it meant she stuttered and blushed every sentence even when her crush Naruto was nowhere in sight or thought. Hopefully, that would go away soon. It usually did, for a while at least, after half an hour of speaking around the person in question.

Both she and Shino stayed silent all the way to Sasuke's house. Hinata wasn't quite sure what Kurenai-sensei was thinking, putting together a team entirely of silent people. If she'd been in a team with someone like Ino-chan or Shikamaru-kun, she wouldn't have been surprised. It would have been an attempt at getting her out of her shell — one that would probably have worked. Although maybe not with Ino. She might just have made Hinata even more easily embarrassed and shy than she already was.

Shikamaru or Kiba, though — those would have been good choices for getting her to be a little more outgoing. Kiba because he was so loud and cheerful that you were either influenced by him into speaking more yourself, or figured out a combination of words and violence that would make him _shut up_. Shikamaru because you would have to find some way to get him to move at all, or he'd make you give up and do whatever it was — even if it was giving a huge speech in front of a hundred people — yourself.

Nervously, Hinata rang the bell of 284 Third Street. The Haruno family wasn't exactly rich, but they were pretty well off. Those of the clan that weren't ninja usually went into the family's cloth business, or began some small yet inevitably successful shop of their own. Most Haruno children, ninja or no, could name all the methods of blue dye in under five minutes.

A pretty, pink-haired woman answered the door. "Oh, are you Sasuke's friends? Do come in, he's brooding up in his room again. Maybe you can snap him out of it?"

Hinata exchanged glances with Shino, managing not to blush this time — although she might have managed the first optical stammer ever. Sasuke brooded?

She smiled at the Haruno woman, though. First impression of Sasuke's mother: she was nice. And talkative, but mostly nice.

And busy, too, it seemed. Verbally trailing directions to Sasuke's room after her, the pink-haired woman hurried off into the kitchen to finish making dinner, somehow managing to mutter about making more food for Sasuke's friends under her breath while still telling them "...third door on the right."

Shino blinked. Hinata blinked. They followed her directions.

Sasuke was, indeed, brooding in his room. He was sitting on the windowsill, legs dangling out, and staring off into the distance while scowling like it wouldn't give him wrinkles.

Hinata shrugged and sat down on his bed. If he didn't notice his own teammates, that was his problem. She glanced around the room. It was very sparse, even compared to her own. The bed, an empty desk (the drawers were probably crammed full, though — this _was_ a twelve-year-old boy's room, and they were not exactly the neatest of creatures), a few bookshelves and scroll cases. These were to be expected.

She pulled one of the scrolls out of the case next to his bed. Fire ninjutsu. She checked another. Still more ninjutsu, but not elemental this time. She pulled out one of the ones on the very bottom.

Ah. _Here_ was something different. A very beautiful story, just short of faery-tale. The illustrations were even more beautiful, in rich colours and flowing shapes.

Reluctantly, she replaced it in favour of examining the bookshelves. The Art of War. The Book of Five Rings. Again, she bent down to check the lower shelves. Bedlam Boys. The Pyramid Scheme. Luxe.

Okay, that last one Hinata _really_ hadn't expected. She'd read that herself only last week, and she hadn't thought someone like _Sasuke_ would like historical romances.

Well, she appeared to be wrong.

Rising, she spotted Shino closing one of the desk drawers. Seeing her expression, he smiled slightly (just enough to be visible to someone who liked to watch without speaking) and mouthed 'He writes damn good poetry'.

That was enough to give Hinata a fit of giggles, thus forcing Sasuke to stop pretending he hadn't noticed they were there.

He just looked at them, before pronouncing, in a voice of doom, "Let's go eat."

Which they did.

--

As soon as Kakashi-sensei left, Kiba began chattering avidly about what he was going to do tomorrow to totally pass whatever test Kakashi was giving them. Sakura looked at Naruto. Naruto looked at Sakura. Kiba continued to talk. They nodded.

Two minutes later, Kiba was neatly tied up with a piece of tape over his mouth, and both Sakura and Naruto were smiling.

Four minutes later, Kiba's sister Hana had arrived to pick something up from the Academy, and was chasing them down the street.

Six minutes later, Sakura grabbed Naruto's wrist and tugged him after her into Training Ground 44 — known more dramatically as the Forest of Death.

Eight minutes later Sakura burst, panting, into a small and peaceful clearing where a dark-haired teenager was meditating next to a crystal clear pool.

"Itachi-nii, can we hide here with you for a while?"

". . ."

"I bought you some raspberry pocky."

". . . Give."

Sakura happily handed the little box to her brother before climbing one of the nearby trees. Naruto sat down next to Itachi, closing his eyes and appearing at one with the world . . . or something like that. Sakura hooked one leg around a large branch, and proceeded to see how long she could hang upside-down before the excessive blood flow to her head forced her to move.

(About ten minutes.)

After that, she just tried to entwine herself around the branches as intricately as possible, producing something like a human Celtic knot.

Sakura didn't notice when Naruto opened one eye to watch her. Nor did she notice, dozing off as she was, the slight tensing of her brother's limbs, ready to move if his sister should fall.

--

Yesterday had been interesting, Hinata reflected. She knew a bit more about her teammates now. Admittedly, they were things like their favourite colours, and what their dream houses would look like, but it had been . . . fun. And they'd talked quite a bit, considering what they all were usually like around other people.

Maybe Kurenai-sensei hadn't been so crazy after all.

Training Ground Ten was one of the more... mixed training grounds. A stream, lots of trees, and a small amount of open ground covered with tall grass. Kurenai-sensei was sitting on a tree stump, kicking her legs gently and probably thinking as Hinata approached.

When Kurenai-sensei saw Hinata, she smiled and waved her over. "Good morning, Hinata-chan."

"G-good morning, Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai-sensei kept bouncing her feet off the stump. "This is going to be a very interesting day, I think. For all of us."

Hinata just nodded, and found her own seat.

Several minutes later, both Sasuke and Shino arrived. Hinata idly wondered if their houses were in the same direction, or if one had gone to get the other.

Kurenai began speaking as soon as they were in hearing distance. "This test will decide whether or not you are suitable to be full-fledged genin. Usually, only one-third of the selected teams pass.

"Your task will be to stay completely uninjured until this timer rings. Anything worse than a small scrape, and you fail. You _all_ fail. And I will know if you try to heal yourselves while out of my sight. Hinata, do not use your Byakugan.

"Go!"

Hinata darted into the trees, and her teammates followed.

Deep in the tree cover, Hinata breathed hard. _Think, think!_ What would Kurenai-sensei do? She might use genjutsu, but she might know that they would think that she would use genjutsu, so she might do something completely different instead. Would she—

Five shuriken sailed for Hinata's face. Taking a deep breath as she blocked them with a kunai, Hinata flashed through possibilities. Deciding that earth, the solid antithesis of illusion, was the way to go, she flashed through the handseals that would cause a wave of dirt to swamp her teacher.

Sasuke, seeing Kurenai block the shuriken he'd thrown to stop her from forming that last handseal, growled. Wait — what was that? Quickly, he jumped away from the mass of earth trying to swallow him and formed the handseals for a fireball.

Shino yelped as several of his bugs were injured in the fight between Kurenai, her mud bunshin, and his two teammates. Wincing slightly, he sent a few more in just to make sure. The scents were a little fuzzy, but everyone (except Kurenai's clone) seemed to be themselves.

--

Watching Sasuke, Hinata, and Shino fight each other, Kurenai smiled. "You can come out now."

With these words, a nearby stump rose to become a young man with pale eyes. "Thanks, Kurenai-sensei. I was getting really stiff."

She shook her head. "You don't need to call me sensei, Zano-kun. I'm not your teacher."

"No, but you are _a_ teacher. So I can call you that if I want."

". . . Sure. Bets on how long it is till one of them gets injured or figures it out?"

"Hinata, five minutes." Hyuuga Zano glanced at the timer, counting down the seconds.

--

Hinata, breathing much harder than before, glanced around. Kurenai was gone — there was no one in (normal) sight. Listening hard for any sound, Hinata glanced at her watch. Twenty minutes. Not long enough. She felt around with her chakra senses anyway, hunting for her teammates. Nothing, nothing, noth—

There!

Hinata ran to find Shino, bleeding from the abdomen and one artery slashed.

"Kai!"

The illusion refused to fade. Desperately, Hinata formed handseals. "Byakugan!"

--

"Pay up, Kurenai-sensei."

--

Hinata sighed in relief. Shino and Sasuke were nowhere near here. Instead, both were about a fifty meters away, uninjured, and seemed to be co-operating against an illusion of some sort. Kurenai was back where she'd been when the test started . . . along with one other person. But Hinata had no damn /time/ to be worrying about that! Five minutes left, and counting. She raced through the trees, scarcely taking the time not to injure herself. If she did, they would all fail and this would be for nothing.

Breathing hard, she landed behind the pair who were fighting what seemed to be an illusion of Kurenai-sensei. Hinata released the chakra keeping up her Byakugan and, as her teammates glanced back, focused on the illusion in front of them.

"Kai!"

The illusion didn't release them. Irritated, Hinata formed handseals again. "Byakugan!"

Ah, now she could _see_. Kurenai had created multiple genjutsu and layered them, melded sight and sound and smell. Then she had made several of _those_, and they weren't going to get out of it just by shouting 'Kai!' over and over.

"Hinata, what . . .?"

She quickly explained, stammer gone in her distraction. "Kurenai-sensei used multiple illusions. We could just stand here going 'Kai!' until they were all gone, but I don't want to be here for hours. Let's just get back to the clearing — time's almost up."

--

"No injuries, Kurenai-sensei. Seeya."

"Yeah."

--

When Sasuke, Shino, and Hinata returned to the clear area they found Kurenai still sitting on her stump, and smiling. "You pass."

Hinata thought those were some of the best words she'd ever heard.

* * *

A/N: I'm trying to write a SasuHina I would actually like. I think I'm succeeding — but I don't know if other people would like it. It would be helpful (hint hint) (sarcastic wink at readers because of hint hinting) if you would let me know.

Also, does anyone like my Itachi? He's one of my favourites. Usually, anyway.


End file.
